I’ve spent decades dreaming about the perfect life. It’s about time I let myself have one.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Knitting by the screen

When I lived closer to
‘civilization’ I was an enthusiastic moviegoer. There was a period in the 1990s
when I saw practically every quality movie they showed in the theatres here. I had a
part-time job in downtown Helsinki and often arranged my comings and goings so
that I could leave the office early and pop in a matinee on my way home, most
often in a cinema a couple of minutes from the office. Now that we have a
45-minute drive to the theatres and no longer any reason to make the journey on a regular basis I’m afraid we only see a handful of movies on the silver
screen annually.

Yet we do see quite a lot of films
on our own white screen. A few years ago, my husband invested in a first-class home cinema system, which has certainly proved to be money very well spent. It is in rather
constant use this time of the year. We watch through the projector not only
movies but also the few series we both follow. In fact, spending time by the
screen is our main hobby during winter evenings and is helping us endure this – so
it seems – never-ending cold and dark season when you don’t even need to pull
down the blackout blinds no matter how early you are switching the projector on.

But it would feel a total waste of
time to sit by the home screen idle. I would never feel this way in a cinema
where I want to concentrate 100% without any popcorn or other disturbing
refreshments, but at home I no longer feel at ease unless I’m knitting. As
sitting by the screen is virtually the only time I’m knitting, it means my
patterns must be simple and preferably in just one colour not to take too much
of my attention. So it has been for the most part socks plus a couple of hoods
in a simple knit 3, purl 3 rib.

Actually, there are two
more screens by which I’m often knitting these days: the windscreen when we are
driving somewhere during daytime (the above photo is from last winter; we haven’t seen this much sun in ages) and the upstairs TV screen when I’m watching
something I have recorded for myself and it’s past my husband’s bedtime. Currently, I’m hooked on two Danish series, Forbrydelsen
(the American remake is called ‘The Killing’) and the political drama Borgen (an NBC remake to follow). We have seen so many brilliant
series from Denmark in recent years it’s no wonder they have gained wide
international acclaim but I don’t believe in remaking something that’s already perfect. I’m definitely skipping the remakes. Well, I did watch some of the British Wallander episodes, much thanks to Kenneth Branagh but also because they were very well done. After all, the original Swedish series was only great, not perfect.

2 comments:

I love my television and I am not ashamed to say that I am lost without it now that it is broken. Living alone, a tv set gives me company; even if I am not following what is going on I enjoy the sound, the noise of voices. And of course, it is perfect for knitting or embroiderying.